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Christie
I’d left the phone in my meeting room corner to charge, my mind spinning with the list of things I’d typed out in a text to myself the other day. I couldn’t believe I’d texted myself. I should have sent it as an email to access it on my computer. Never in my life had I felt so unprepared, and never in my life did I think I would be in a position like this.
Sleeping with a man I’d never met.
Losing my phone in a rush to a flight.
Missing information I needed to prepare for my future.
If I didn’t get my phone back soon, I was screwed. I needed those notes. I figured Ryan wouldn’t make it here before my meeting, so I sent the picture of the convention center map with a circle on the room I’d be in afterward. Hopefully, he’d be there, and hopefully, this could just be a horrible memory I’d laugh at a year from now in my leather chair at my fancy desk in my corner office.
Maybe.
“Not maybe, Christie. You’ve got this,” I said aloud and then clamped my mouth shut when I remembered I was in a hallway full of professionals walking to their lectures.
After the meeting, we were told to return again at eight to meet with the guest speakers who would take up the final lecture in the grand ballroom the following evening. I’d missed my chance to meet them this morning since my plane didn’t arrive until after the first speakers’ meeting, but tomorrow night, I would get the chance to meet the key to my future, the owner of the fast-growing cannabis empire, SunRock. Okay, maybe not an empire, but it would be.
I exhaled through pursed lips, my nerves at an all-time high. The owner, Andrew Rock, was walking around in this building right now. I wanted nothing more than to work with him, and as a new company, I had a chance, albeit a minuscule chance, to join his team of business consultants.
I still had plenty of time before my lecture, so I walked to the room where they were laying out food for the speakers. I grabbed a muffin and two bananas, then poured myself a glass of orange juice from the pitcher at the end. I sat at a table and ate slowly, trying to collect myself. Ryan’s phone was still charging in the ballroom; his battery sucked so badly that I wanted to make sure it was fully charged. I had texted him again before the meeting, telling him where I might be, so I wasn’t too worried about it. He could hunt a little bit.
In fact, he deserved to hunt.
“Christie? Hey!”
I looked up through a mouthful of food at a woman whose face I’d seen way too many times in the past few years. Marsha Brand had the face of a businesswoman, serious gray eyes, straight raven hair cut in a bob, and sharp features that gave her a somewhat daunting appearance. That was always what I wanted. Some women begged for bouncy curls or bright green eyes, but Marsha Brand was my college envy.
I swept my fingers through my brown hair and waved her over, forcing down my half-chewed bite so I wouldn’t sound like a fool.
“What are you doing here, girl?” She slid into the chair across from me, her smile so big that her eyes almost closed. She reminded me of an anime character, but that would mean I was the girl who looked like a little kid.
Sounded about right.
“Hey,” I said, plastering a grin on my face as I peeled my first banana. “What brings you back to Texas?”
“I work here now!” She swatted the air with French-tipped nails. “Well, nothere, here, but remember that job fair before we graduated? I got a job first thing. The interview wasn’t even much of an interview!”
“What do you mean?”
“Some of the businesses there were established and looking for entry-level applicants, but two wanted to hire several specialists to help them expand. They weren’t looking for consultants, but when I looked through the job boards, a couple of them were offering positions here in Texas where they were opening new offices!”
I stopped chewing, immediately hating myself for not going to the job fair. That small shop I’d worked with was working on their grand reopening that week, and since I was responsible for social media, I had to be there every day. I’d almost missed a final because of it. Now, it sounded like I’d missed my chance to get a real job, too.
When I made it back to Ballroom B, my lecture hall, the door was closed, and another speaker was doing their program. Farming Clients to Sow Your Crop or something like that. It made mine sound unoriginal, but Building a Scalable Business was straightforward, which was not only how I worked but how I tried to live. Kitschy and fun may find clients, but product and delivery would keep them.
“Don’t buy out resources to build your plan,” I murmured, trying to recall the introduction I’d bullet-listed in my text. “No, the first part. ‘Your company isn’t growing, but it’s...’ Crap.” I needed to look at my intro a few more times; then I’d be fine. I was too frazzled to remember anything right now.
“Ma’am?”
I whipped around to the woman who stood behind me, her lanyard hidden behind tight black curls. Her purple glasses sat high on her face, and without reading her tag, I knew she was one of the students here. “Yes?” I asked, earning a hopeful smile.
“Is this where the next lecture moved? It was in Ballroom C, but...” She looked down at her pamphlet. “Holistic Companies, Realistic Practices?”
I frowned, trying to remember the reassignments the director mentioned. “Uh,” I started. “Oh, wait, you mean for three o’clock?”
The woman nodded.
“I think that one was moved to the Green Room.”
